«Ne l’arte di Minerva perita quanto Aragne»: Isotta Nogarola and the Iusta Victoria by Felice Feliciano Antiquario

Abstract

This article proposes the identification of the Veronese humanist Isotta Nogarola (1418–1466) as the model for the protagonist of La Gallica Historia intitulata Iusta Victoria, the only vernacular novella by Felice Feliciano Antiquario (c. 1433–1479). Starting from an examination of Feliciano’s vernacular poetic anthologies, the study traces a series of convergences between the figure of Victoria – the learned, rhetorically gifted heroine of the tale – and the historical figure of Nogarola. These include the protagonist’s exceptional humanistic education, her mastery of oratory (deemed inappropriate for women according to Leonardo Bruni’s De studiis et litteris), her seclusion in a chamber rich with books, and the narrative’s conspicuous silence on the subject of marriage. Further circumstantial evidence is provided by the documented connections between Feliciano and the Nogarola family through the Lavagnola network, by Feliciano’s relationship with Giovan Mario Filelfo (author of the Liber Isottaeus), and by the defamatory accusations leveled against Nogarola – closely mirroring those directed at Victoria by the antagonist Galvano in the novella. The article also situates the Historia within its broader literary context, highlighting its debt to Boccaccio’s Decameron, the Roman de la Rose, and the tradition of the humanistic novella inaugurated by Petrarca’s Latin translation of Griselda, as well as its parodic reversal of Arthurian material in support of a distinctly humanistic cultural programme.